What are you working on today?

This last week was predominantly hydro boost units. I also clearance cut some axle shafts but that was only a half hours work. Went in Saturday and pulled some overtime on the hydro boost. Yesterday I made a deal with the neighbor on the 99 Sonoma and the 04 f150. The Sonoma is still at his house, I'll have to get it towed home. I drove the F-150 to the house. It's going to need tires and the number 1 spark plug hole is going to need a thread insert. Light skip under load.

I have a spare good Ford coil in the shop, swap it out to see if that was the miss. If it coil swapping for testing I don't bolt them down, just stick them on the plug. As it was running I kept hearing the telltale note of compression leaking....pfffpfffpfff. I put my hand on the coil and it stopped. I tried snugging the plug and, sure enough, it just spun. Got it out to find no threads in the head.

This is something I'm going to let someone else tackle. It's an easy cylinder to access, and I have done this insert repair before, but it always makes me nervous. I have a friend in town who does them semi regularly and I'm going to let him do it.

The Sonoma would light off on a snort of brake cleaner (I didn't have starting fluid) so am educated and probably correct guess is fuel pump is bad. Both trucks will be easy flippers.
 
Delta said:
Everything checked out good, spun smoothly and quietly. I'll see what happens in the next couple days.
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Went to the store this morning. It rained last night and was cool outside. Quiet as can be. Success I recon!

My little epoxy "repair" on the engine cover seems to have held, not taking it off if I have to though! Put some silicone spray in the rubber grommets so hopefully it won't stick again.
 
Buick water pump yesterday. Not a horrible job. Looked to be original. 172,000 miles.
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Replaced the front passenger seat belt in a Mercedes W211. What a pain. Now I'm running down the other fault that says intermittent Samm comms that is causing the pre-safe not functioning message. Everything works, no ESP faults or anything, but I may need a new seat controller. ugh.
 
Today was "save Mom from the repair shop" day. Since I moved away, she's been using a local chain for her repairs that I can't take care of during her visits with mostly good results. Unfortunately, they wanted far too much to repair a broken rear toe arm so I had her drop it off with me and sent her home with one of our spare vehicles.

Total parts cost was less than $150 for a front axle, 2 rear toe arms, and a Bando belt. I've got an alignment scheduled for next week, then I'll install the snow tires and deliver the car back to her on our next visit to the Cities.

Made in Japan Bando FTW 👍

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The left rear toe arm separated at the weld, I'm guessing it was a bad weld from the start and it took 200k miles for it to finally give way. The car lived the first 2/3 of it's life in California, so rust is minimal and an unlikely cause.

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Brought my newest auction purchase home today. This is now the newest vehicle I own being a 2017. It’s a Mack CXU613 with a 365hp Mack MP7 engine and a 12 speed M drive automated manual transmission. Ran and drove really well for most of the 450 mile trip home. About 40 miles away it cut cylinder 3 for some reason. Once home I shut it off and restarted it and everything was fine again. I’m going to probably pull the valve cover and inspect the injector wiring but I’m hoping it’s a fluke.

Got stopped by DOT coming home for not having a company name on it(it had never been home to be lettered yet) and got a Level 3 inspection and he went over the truck paperwork since I hadn’t tagged it yet. Passed my inspection and was on my way.

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Replacing H11 headlamp bulbs on the Ram this afternoon, left side burned out this morning on the way to work. Replaced the right side as well because knowing my luck the right would’ve burn out within another week or in the winter when all that plastic clips and stuff gets brittle and can crack easily.
 
BrianF said:
All my parts came in this week. Oil, rear fuel and engine air filters (all Baldwin) for my 2017 3500 6.7. Then ball joints for my 2006 Trailblazer. I chose Delphi which appear to be made Deeza's made in Turkey. Then a recoil rope, ball joints and CV shafts for my old Polaris Magnum.
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Have you tried the BD7317 in place of the BT7349 yet?
 
@Bighorn2500 I had heard about that filter and can get them somewhat locally for about 36 bucks all in. Have i thought about using one? No, the cheaper filter does just fine in a 24,000km change index. My truck will long rot away before it makes a difference.
 
Installed the new Baldwin air filter on my Ram 3500 6.7. The Napa filter was dirty but not bad. Meh.

Then tore down the Polaris Magnum to do CV shafts, seals and ball joints. Well..... that didn't go quite as I hoped but completely in the realm of what I expected.

So the hub and CV seals had both appeared to be seeping over the years but the hub sleeve had grooves worn into it. A new sleeve is hopefully out of the picture as they are a pain to change and gives the possibility of damaging the coil. I am hoping I can locally source a speedi sleeve as there is one that can fit.

Next up, while disassembling the front end, I went to tap the A armnoff the ball joint stud..... well it came off but with ball stud still attached. Great. So my buddy has a little half ass welder he will lend me, if the ball stud welds on decently, I can try a couple ways to remove it.

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Did second oil change with Valvoline R & P in our base 2023 Forester. I’m glad Glenda mentioned that the boxer chain does a number on the oil. From very quiet to noisy. Started doing my own oil changes again. Have used redline gas additive for decades and said goodbye to Dave before he left redline. The oil plus redline and switching to premium gas (12.3 to 1 compression ratio) has produced great results.

My JKUR became better half’s GX460 which became a 2017 3.6 touring outback which became a 2023 Sport Ridgeline.

Her H3 became a base Escape. ( surprisingly we enjoyed it better than the Lexus). The Escape then became the second also white 2017 3.6 touring outback. Always wanted two of the same cars. The outback became the 2023 Forester.

We have a great combo. Both have full size spares. Both have cloth seats. Both do not have sun roofs.
 
Finished up the hydro boost units on Monday, worked on several sets of link bars through the week, and modified a couple of adapter plates. The adapter plates connect a TH400 transmission to an aftermarket transfer case in their original design, but the two I worked on needed to be modified to connect that transfer case to a 4L80. That was pretty fun.

Got the F-150 back Thursday night. I'm going to tinker with it some today. Plan on pressure washing the outside, doing a clean up on the interior, check front end, replace wiper blades, belt, air filter, and an oil change. I have an appointment to have new tires put on on Monday.

The Sonoma was towed here Tuesday night. I'll probably start messing with it next weekend.
 
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